a "distressed" state. At the trial Lewis admitted driving while unfit through drink, assaulting a police officer, and being drunk and disorderly. He was fined £65 and banned from driving for a year, he was not charged with assaulting his wife. He focused on stage work in productions such as Raymond and Agnes (1965). Final years Lewis was a regular in the TV series His and Hers (1970–72). Apart from a role in Friends (1971) and its sequel Paul and Michelle (1974), his final credits were in TV: Tales of Unease (1970), Hine (1971), The Rivals of Sherlock Holmes (1973), Harriet's Back in Town (1973), Nightingale's Boys (1975), Public Eye (1975), and Crown Court ('Do Your Worst' episode, 1974), Big Boy Now! (1976), Warship (1977), The XYY Man (1977), Z Cars (1978), and The John Sullivan Story (1979). He was meant to be First Voice in a production of Under Milk Wood at Theatre Gwynedd in 1975. He stopped drinking to prepare himself for the role, but wound up having a heart attack on opening night. Personal life Lewis was married twice, both times to actresses: Norah Gorsen (m 1960) and Elizabeth Marlow (m 1967). He had two daughters with Marlow. Once the marriage broke up, he began drinking heavily. In 1979, he collapsed in his dressing room. In 1981, at the age of 52, he was declared bankrupt with debts of £21,188. Death When Lewis committed suicide by taking a barbiturate overdose at a boarding house in Pimlico, Kenneth Williams recorded in his diary entry for 12 January 1982: "The paper says Ronald Lewis has taken an overdose! He was declared bankrupt last year! Obviously nobody offered him work & he was driven to despair. I remember Ronnie... and that drinking session at the White Horse all those years ago... he was a kind boy & people used him. He was 53." Partial filmography Valley of Song (1953) – Morgan – Miner (uncredited) The Square Ring (1953) – Eddie Lloyd The Beachcomber (1954) – Headman's Son The Prisoner (1955) – The Guard Storm Over the Nile (1955) – Peter Burroughs Helen of Troy (1956) – Aeneas Sailor Beware! (1956) – Albert Tufnell A Hill in Korea (1956) – The National Servicemen: Pte. Wyatt / Pte Wyatt The Secret Place (1957) – Gerry Carter Robbery Under Arms (1957) – Dick Marston The Wind Cannot Read (1958) – Squadron Leader Fenwick